Electronic Case Law puts you on the case

Questions at the Law Library’s information desk and comments from users prompted the development of the library's new Electronic Case Law page, now available online.

This new service provides direct links to case law and law reports from Australian and selected overseas jurisdictions that are available via the library's subscription databases.

Law Library manager, Lisa Smith and Information Services Librarian, Kay Tucker worked with staff from the Library’s Information Resources and Information Systems Divisions on developing the page over the last year.

"This new service adds value to the library’s subscription databases and saves users time"said Ms Smith.

"It enables users to quickly find and access a law report series or decisions of a particular court within our aggregate databases. Previously this information was hidden and knowledge was acquired through experience and trial and error."

"We believe this led to under-utilisation of expensive databases, and reliance on free web sites via Google as the only means of finding electronic case law by many users."

"Cancellation of print case law resources often resulted in users believing that the library no longer had case law from a particular court or law report series, whereas we often hold it in at least one database.”

Ms Smith said the need for such a resource became apparent to Law Library staff who often deal with queries about finding case law electronically.

"We also responded to a specific comment made in the library’s 2003 user survey, which suggested the development of such a resource as the one thing we could do to assist law staff and students, "Ms Smith said.

Ms Smith said the Electronic Case Law page was not intended solely for Law Faculty staff and students, but could also benefit staff and students across the university who may need to access case law on an occasional basis.

The page can be accessed by clicking on the ‘resources’ link at the top of the library web site or via the ‘key law resources’ link from the Law Library web pages. Or you may wish to add the Electronic Case Law Page to your bookmarks: http://www.lib.monash.edu.au/ecases/

18 November 2004

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